Jack Eichel scored a goal and had an assist and Mark Stone added two assists as the Vegas Golden Knights snapped a five-game losing streak with a 5-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday night in Las Vegas.

Cole Reinhardt, Ivan Barbashev, Pavel Dorofeyev and Alexander Holtz also scored goals and Akira Schmid made 21 saves for the Golden Knights, who broke a first-place tie with Edmonton, a 4-3 loser at Calgary earlier Wednesday, in the Pacific Division.

Elias N. Pettersson and Pierre-Olivier Joseph scored goals and Teddy Blueger added two assists for Vancouver, which suffered its third straight loss and fell for the 17th time in its last 19 games.

Kevin Lankinen finished with 26 saves for the Canucks, who head into the Olympic break still searching for their first road victory of 2026. Vancouver last won away from home on Dec. 29 at Seattle, 3-2, in a shootout, a streak of eight straight losses.

After a scoreless first 25 minutes, the two teams combined for four goals in the span of 2 1/2 minutes.

Vegas took a 1-0 lead at the 5:09 mark of the second period when Eichel ripped a wrist shot from the high slot off a Rasmus Andersson pass off the far post for his 20th goal, the ninth time he has hit the 20-goal mark in his career.

Reinhardt, breaking down the slot, made it 2-0, deking Lankinen and then tucking a forehand shot around his right pad.

Pettersson then put Vancouver on the board 37 seconds later with a wrist shot from the top of the left circle that beat Schmid five-hole.

Barbashev roofed a wrist shot off a Stone drop pass 28 seconds later to increase the Vegas lead to 3-1, extending his goal streak to a career-best four games.

Joseph scored with 7.8 seconds left in the period to cut the lead to 3-2, snapping a shot from the left point through heavy traffic and past Schmid’s glove side.

The Golden Knights then broke the game open early in the third period with goals one minute apart by Dorofeyev and Holtz.

–Field Level Media

Bennett Stirtz scored 22 points and dished out five assists Wednesday night as Iowa rallied from a nine-point, second-half deficit for an 84-74 Big Ten Conference road win over Washington in Seattle.

The Hawkeyes (17-5, 7-4 Big Ten) also got 16 points off the bench from Alvaro Folgueiras, plus 11 each from Tavion Banks and Cooper Koch. All of Koch’s came after halftime, when Iowa canned 14 of 24 field goals, including 6 of 10 from the 3-point line.

Hannes Steinbach scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for the Huskies (12-11, 4-8), giving him a program-record 15 double-doubles as a freshman. Zoom Diallo added 16 points and 12 assists, 10 of the assists coming in the first half.

Wesley Yates III chipped in 15 points for Washington despite missing time in the second half with a leg injury. Quimari Peterson contributed 11 off the bench and Bryson Tucker potted 10 points.

Iowa trailed 50-41 after Steinbach scored to open the second half but overtook the Huskies when Folgueiras nailed two foul shots with 14:21 left for a 58-56 edge for the Hawkeyes. That was part of a 9-0 burst that put Iowa up to stay.

Steinbach’s putback drew the Huskies within 67-66 at the 8:45 mark but Iowa responded with eight straight points, then led by as many as 13 in the last 2 1/2 minutes.

The teams presented a fascinating contrast in styles. Undersized Iowa entered with four straight wins behind efficient offense and improving defense but figured to be tested by Steinbach, who entered the night with four straight double-doubles.

It was Washington that carried most of the first half as it simply couldn’t miss a shot. It connected on 20 of 26, including 6 of 8 from the 3-point line. The Hawkeyes couldn’t cope with the Huskies’ size and managed only four rebounds all half.

Yet Iowa canned 17 of 28 from the field and owned a 40-39 edge on Banks’ layup at the 2:41 mark before Washington ripped off nine straight points, highlighted by Yates’ 3-pointer with 48.0 seconds left. That enabled it to take a 48-41 advantage to halftime.

–Field Level Media

The Carolina Hurricanes have led the Metropolitan Division most of the season and their recent hot streak has hoisted them within striking range of the President’s Trophy.

The Hurricanes attempt to earn a point in a season-high 10th straight game Thursday night when they visit the last-place New York Rangers — who traded Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday — in the final game for both teams before the Olympic break.

Carolina has gone 7-0-2 since a 3-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Jan. 13. That left them 14 points behind the Colorado Avalanche in the race for the most points in the NHL, but the Hurricanes entered Wednesday’s action just five points back with 26 games left.

The Hurricanes are outscoring opponents 37-20 during this streak, though three of their past four wins are by one goal. The latest was Tuesday’s 4-3 home win over the Ottawa Senators when the Hurricanes blew a two-goal lead for the third straight game. They allowed two power-play tallies before Jordan Staal scored with 5:07 left in the third period.

“We’ll take wins any way we can, right?” said Carolina’s Sebastian Aho, who scored for the third straight game.” That’s what we’re trying to do here: win hockey games, get some points and get to the playoffs. As of late, we’ve done a pretty good job on that.”

Seth Jarvis added two goals and has 10 points (four goals and six assists) during the past nine games.

“You don’t want to sit on a loss for three weeks,” Jarvis said. “You don’t want to sit on a bad game. Just coming in with the mindset of keeping this thing rolling, grinding one more out, and leaving it on the ice, and you’ve got three weeks to recoup.”

Rookie goaltender Brandon Bussi has started seven games during the hot streak and boasts a 22-3-1 record. But Thursday could be another milestone for him as the Long Island native can make his first appearance at Madison Square Garden.

The Hurricanes are 6-1-0 in the past seven meetings with the Rangers, whose 46 points are the fewest in the Eastern Conference.

The Rangers will play their first game of the post-Panarin era, though they have a sense of how things might go. While they held him out to facilitate a trade, the Rangers went 0-3-0 while getting outscored 13-8.

New York received forward Liam Greentree, a conditional third-round pick in the upcoming draft and a conditional fourth-round selection in the 2028 draft in exchange for Panarin, who piled up 205 goals and 402 assists in 482 regular-season games over not quite seven years with the Rangers.

In the Rangers’ most recent game, they trailed 5-1 at Pittsburgh before scoring four goals in the final 10-plus minutes as Alexis Lafreniere scored twice and Vincent Trocheck scored to go along with two assists.

Mika Zibanejad added an assist, giving him 11 goals and 23 points over his past 15 games. If the Rangers make numerous trades, Zibanejad and J.T. Miller might be among the veterans on a roster with younger players such as Gabe Perreault and waiver claims such as defenseman Vincent Iorio getting long looks.

–Field Level Media